Declutter Before Christmas: A 14-Day Plan to Make Room
Every December a house takes in more than it usually does: gifts, wrapping, decorations, extra food, extra people. If there is no room for any of it, it lands on the nearest surface and stays there until spring.
The fix is simple and slightly backwards. Instead of decluttering after the holiday, make the room first. Fourteen days, fifteen minutes a day, one small area at a time. It works best if you start around 1 December, so the plan is finished before the 15th.
The rule that makes it work
Make the space before the thing arrives. A gift with nowhere to go becomes clutter within a week. A gift with a place waiting for it is just a gift.
Each day follows the same method as the 30-day declutter challenge: fifteen minutes, one area, three boxes.
- Keep: belongs here, stays here
- Move: belongs in another room; carry it there now, do not pile it
- Out: donate, recycle or bin; it leaves the house this week
Do not catch up if you miss a day. Day 9 is still day 9.
Week 1: the places gifts will land
Day 1: the entryway and coat closet
Guests and winter coats arrive at the same time. Clear the shelf, thin out the coats nobody wears and give every pair of shoes in daily use a spot.
Day 2: the kids' toy shelves
Take out what is broken, outgrown or never played with. Rotate the rest: keep about a third of the toys out and store the others, so new toys have somewhere to go.
Day 3: the bookshelf and media shelf
Keep what you will reread or rewatch. Books that were read once and not loved can leave, and the shelf gets room for new ones.
Day 4: the wrapping and gift storage
Gather every roll, bag and ribbon in one place. Throw away the half-rolls too small to use, and keep one box or bag for all of it.
Day 5: the pantry and fridge
Use the "use first" box for anything near its date, bin what is expired and make room for the holiday food. Check the pantry for duplicates before you shop.
Day 6: the serving and baking cupboard
Hosting pulls out dishes you rarely use. Check that you can find them, and move duplicates and chipped pieces out.
Day 7: the guest room or spare bed
A guest room that is a storage room cannot host a guest. Clear the surfaces and a drawer, and put out a clean towel.
Week 2: the places that stay full all year
Day 8: the kitchen counters
Surfaces are the first thing to fill up. Clear them back to the essentials and find homes for the rest.
Day 9: the bathroom cabinet
Bin expired products and duplicates. Guests will see this cabinet.
Day 10: the nightstand and bedroom surfaces
These collect small things. Clear them, and keep only what you use every night.
Day 11: the closet top shelf
The forgotten zone. It is where the things you do not use but cannot decide about live. Decide about three of them.
Day 12: the paper
Mail, manuals and receipts. Each item gets one choice: action, file or bin. Nothing goes back into a pile.
Day 13: the decorations box
Before you put anything out, look at what you own. Anything broken, tangled beyond use or no longer liked goes now, not in January.
Day 14: the out box
Everything marked "out" in the last two weeks leaves the house today: drop it off, put it in the recycling or put it in the car.
During the holidays: one in, one out
When a gift comes in, an older item of the same kind goes out. A new jumper means an old one leaves. A new toy means a toy leaves. It sounds strict and takes about a minute, and it is the single habit that stops the January pile.
Where this fits
If this plan feels like a good start, the new year declutter order picks up from here with the harder rooms. And the free 30-day declutter checklist at the top of this page is the printable version of the method used in this plan.
If you only have fifteen minutes in total
Do the three places that matter most, in this order:
- The entryway and coat closet. Winter coats and guests arrive here first.
- The kids' toys. Rotate a third out and store the rest, so new toys have room.
- The wrapping. One bag or box for everything, and the unusable scraps in the bin.
These three give you most of the room you will need for gifts, and each one is a single short sitting.
Donate, recycle or bin
Be quick about the "out" box. A simple way to decide:
- Donate what is clean, complete and in good condition. Check what your local charity shop or collection point takes, since it varies.
- Recycle paper, cardboard and anything your local scheme accepts.
- Bin what is broken, stained, or missing parts. Donating something that cannot be used just moves the problem.
Do not leave the "out" box in the hallway for weeks. Put it by the front door on the day you fill it and take it with you on your next trip out.
Decluttering with children
- Let each child choose a few toys to keep out and a few to store, rather than deciding for them
- Do not discard a toy they are attached to; rotate it into storage and see whether it is missed
- Do the toy shelves before the gifts arrive, not after, so there is a place for each new toy to go
Common questions
Do I need to do all fourteen days? No. If you only do week one, you will already have made room in the places gifts land. Week two is for the places that stay full all year.
What if I miss a day? Do not catch up. Day 9 is still day 9. Doubling up is how people quit.
What if the house is already full? Start with the easiest areas, not the hardest. Momentum matters more than the order of the rooms.
Should I wait until January? January works too, and the new year declutter order is built for it. The advantage of December is that the room exists before the gifts do.